Muara 1920

This is the other postcards I mentioned the other day. This is a postcard of Muara in the 1920s. Muara as you know was known as Brooketon until the 1920s. Up to the 1920s, the British treated Muara as if it is a different administration. Rajah Brooke managed to buy the concession to mine the coal at Muara in the late 19th century. Rajah Brooke even though was only a concession holder administered Muara as part of his Sarawak administration. So Muara had its own police, its own post office etc and Brooke even renamed it Brooketon.

When the British came to Brunei in 1906, Rajah Brooke was still treated with reverence even by the British. It was only in 1920s that when the lease ran out that the government decided to take back Muara from Rajah Brooke

When this photograph was taken for this postcard, the name Brooketon obviously still in use. I was lucky too because not many people linked Brooketon to Muara and even though there were still bids, I was able to get it a relatively low US$34.